Gundam Unicorn – 06

The wide arrays of iconicmecha are broady perceived as leading Gundam to its current success. In reality, the franchise is as much about the human side of the equation as the mecha and suffice to say, Gundam Unicorn (UC) delivered one of the most enthralling character studies in recent memories. Aptly named “Sora to Hoshi to” (“The Sky and the Stars”), Episode Six marks the return of our heroes to space and continues right where we left off as the clash of the supposedly allied battleships, Nahel Argama and General Revil was interrupted by the suspiciously timely arrival of The Sleeves. There is certainly a story of conspiracies playing out here but what’s clear is that the crucible of events is unfolding in a very human disposition that is highly relatable and somewhat melancholic. Especially with a story that is so prominently shaped by the operatic history of the Universal Century timeline – one where the writer, Fukui Harutoshi doesn’t bend over backwards to make things apparent – character development is sometimes eclipsed by the grandeur of its world-building and the political drama that ensues. The narratives of why the characters acted they way they did are critical in Gundam UC and such interpretation needs to accommodate their sense of factional solidarity, where achievements of their own are embellished while the opponents are unanimously vilified.

This is particularly true of flawed heroes, as exemplified so conspicuously by Full Frontal (Ikeda Shuichi – He’s Char alright!), the charismatic leader of The Sleeves who is spearheading the Third Neo Zeon War three years after “Char’s Counterattack”. Similar to his spiritual predecessor, verdicts of “The Second Coming of Char” differ wildly. For the hard-line Zeon sympathizers such as Angelo Sauper (Kakihara Tetsuya), he is a larger-than-life revolutionary who against all odds, strives for the self-governance right of the Spacenoids. For the Earth Federation who is adamant on maintaining authority over the space colonies, he is an extremist who cast virtually the entire human race into a state of terror, bloodshed and duplicity. The atrocity committed by the Zeon movement is well known and a case can certainly be made that Full Frontal, like Char Aznable, is indeed a terrorist. I’m sure far too many remember what happened during the madness of the One Year War when weapons of mass destruction were deployed indiscriminately and millions perished as a result. But that doesn’t mean it’s all peaches-an-cream with the Earth Federation or even those alleged pacifists such as Banagher Links (Uchiyama Kouki). In fact, the subject of oppression is at the heart of the many tragedies throughout Universal Century and the dark side of the Earth Federation cannot be totally expunged. From the so-called “Earth-Born Elitism” in Gundam 0079 to the yet-to-be-revealed conspiracy behind the Laplace’s Box in Gundam UC, it’s certainly not difficult to recount the dreadful events in the sort of bleak details that would make many of the Earth Federation supporters anxious.

Perhaps with the magnificent wisdom of hindsight, we might be able to figure out who’s right or wrong. But one of the many things I love about Gundam UC is that the line between hero and villain is razor thin and the revelation of Full Frontal’s master plan certainly doesn’t make the debate any easier. The Side Co-Prosperity Sphere (SCS) is a grand idea, on paper anyway – it’s all about the creation of a political coalition between the space colonies and the subsequent imposition of economic sanctions on the Earth Federation. There’s certainly a fascinating dynamic of role reversal that is being explored here. Historically speaking, sanctions played a key part in the Earth Federation’s multi-decade effort to extend influence over the Spacenoids. The formation of the SCS, however, symbolized a shift of economic supremacy in the space colonies’ favor. Such a development would ultimately set the stage for an exodus of Earthnoids into space – indeed, in line with the Newtype Theory and Zeon Zum Deikun’s teachings. Of course, nothing is ever as straightforward in wartime and the current political reality would never allow the SCS to see the light of day. It’s hardly surprising this is where the Laplace’s Box comes into the picture and while the nature of the artifact has been intentionally left vague, we know for sure it contains certain dark secrets about the Earth Federation that could lead to its demise.

Observers of the Universal Century, like Mineva Lao Zabi (Fujimura Ayumi), have certainly seen this movie before. Full Frontal’s plan is a double-edged sword – a perfect storm waiting to happen or a game changer that finally puts a halt to the years of terrible hardship. The quick retorts that she presented unmistakably argue in favor of her own idealistic views, but she correctly points out that such unilateral initiatives would only provoke rebellion, thereby repeating an endless cycle of war and terror. History often tells us a whole lot and unfortunately, that of Universal Century doesn’t give credence to the pacifist’s generous verdict on its people. The great irony is that personal ambition will always stands at odds with a win-win solution and indeed, the tussle on Nahel Argama only underscores the chronic tension that exists between Neo Zeon and the Earth Federation. No doubt, Banagher is not blind to the fierce ideological disputes that prevail now, but he’s willing to give humankind the benefit of the doubt, and his optimism isn’t without plausible reasons. If I had to pick a favorite moment of this episode, it would be the heartfelt exchange of words between Marida Cruz (Kaida Yuuko) and Suberoa Zinnerman (Tezuka Hideaki). Bent upon vengeance, Zinnerman has every right to hate the Earth Federation who mercilessly slaughtered his family during the Side 3 occupation. But deep down he knows he’s walking a path of damnation, one where he might even hurt those he cares about in the present. That he loves Marida is utterly beyond doubt and his profound remarks, “Follow your heart, this is my final order” signals Zinnerman’s willingness to let go of the past and embrace the future, one where Marida can be happy. If such a tormented soul can see the light at the end of the tunnel, there might hope that humanity can co-exist peacefully and Banagher is clearly clinging on to that glimmer.

There is no single narrative that makes sense of this all but one fact is not in doubt – the way the pieces of the puzzle are being fit together is truly impressive. Why the show works for me, as discussed, is the characters, and how much I’ve come to care about every single one of them. I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t too crazy about Banagher in the earlier episodes, but to say he has grown on me in a big way since then would be an understatement. Then there’s Riddhe Marcenas (Namikawa Daisuke) who exists as one of the most fascinating element in the mix and where his ultimate loyalty lies is still to be determined. The clash between Banagher and his newly empowered rival is bound to resurface sooner or later and the final scene certainly got my adrenaline pumping as the souped-up versions of the Unicorn Gundam and Banshee collide in space, just before we hit the ending credits. It’s going to be a race against the clock for the Nahel Argama and Neo Zeon’s Rewloola, as both battleships head towards Industrial 7 to secure the Laplace’s Box. Both sides have clearly made up their minds on what they need to do and things are certainly heating up in every way as the marvelously complex saga of Gundam UC enters its most dramatic stage.

Random observations:

I had better stock up on ice cream now that I know that’s Marida’s favorite food. I wonder what flavor she likes, Strawberry?

The Psycho-field phenomenon of the Unicorn Gundam has been confirmed to be similar to that of the Nu Gundam’s and we know what happened to Amuro Ray when he overloaded the Psychoframe construct

The latest ending theme (RE: I Am by Aimer) is composed by none other than Sawano Hiroyuki, who is of course the lead composer of the soundtrack. A truly magnificent song, hardly surprising considering the spectacular work he has done for the OST

This show continues to be fantastic- kinda disappointed that there’s barely any action in this episode, but I’m sure the finale will remedy that! All in all, great episode- love the characters and mecha designs, don’t know if I can wait a whole year for the next one though…

I know right? I think I’m just going to create a battle scene with those two using my HG models of them… Excited that we’re getting a writer that’s a big fan of mecha here- looking forward to your blogging of Valvrave!

there’s two link errors (in bold), one @ “Zinnerman has every right to hate the Earth Federation who mercilessly slaughtered his family during the Side 3 occupation.”, the other one’s @ “It’s going to be a race against the clock for the Nahel Argama and Neo Zeon’s Rewloola,”

This episode really is the buildup for episode 7′s epic finale, so I definitely can forgive the lack of action. Not to mention I was quite intrigued with the discussions. Too bad we won’t get the final episode until 2014.

Anyways, in my opinion, this was an excellent first post, Seishun. I definitely look forward to more of your reviews (namely Valvrave, as that’s my most anticipated show of the season).

Do we have a reason as to why the gap between episode 6 and 7 is significantly larger than any of the other episodes? It was a brilliant slow paced episode that’s got me excited for episode 7, now though there wasn’t much psychoframe action.

The fact that the last two Gundam TV projects bombed hard (00 was way below expectatives and AGE is Sunrise’s major fiasco in it’s history) left the production without money. Why I don’t understand is why are we getting a totally unnecessary movie from AGE2 instead of the epic final that Unicorn will be in this year. Only 80MS Team took longer to produce (5 years if I’m not mistaken), but that was because the passing of director Takeyuki Kanda; this is because Sunrise’s borad of directors doesn’t know what the word “Gundam” means.

Marida and Zinnerman’s scene was powerful. In a way, it’s the last remmants of the old Zion saying “I’m ready to really live my own life”. Audrey’s (Mineva) phrase of “You’re not the Char I knew” to Frontal was also heavy. In the other specter, although Riddhe is an idiot, his character is so centered in mantaining the status-quo that at the end, he could end doing a stupidity. Thankfully, Banagher is now set to end this nonsense once and for all with the impressive Unicorn Full Armor, and the fact that he’s the ony Gundam Pilot that didn’t needed the usual Bright Slap to man up, which is making him the best of his class.

That’s hardly true. Gundam 00 was the best selling anime in 2007, almost 40k sold, so Sunrise definitely cashed in big on that project. AGE is a failure commercially but that doesn’t mean Sunrise is strap for cash as well, the studio released many major hits over the last few years, Kyokai Senjou no Horizon and Tiger & Bunny being just two of them. Not to mention Gundam UC alone has been the best selling anime in Japan in the last three years. Unicorn averaged about 200k and to put that into context that’s more than Bakemonogatari and Madoka Magica combined.

Simply put, they just did not realise 6 one hour chunks wasn’t enough to satisfactorily cover all ten volumes of the novel until they were about half way into production storyboarding the latter stages. It’s why rumours about the extra episode started to pop up around the time of episode 4′s production/release phase.

Whilst I don’t know what the ending is, partly because the novel translations are still a fair bit behind, there’s quite a number of people saying there’s still well over an hour’s worth of material left to cover, opening up the possibility for episode 7 to be extended-length or possibly even two hours long.

I’ve been disliking Unicorn since the disappointing fourth epsiode. But I’m glad for this episode because it was pointing out what I felt about this whole conflict. That Neo Zeon’s idealist spouting is complete hypocritical bullcrap. I have stopped giving any sympathy for them when they refuse to own up to their war crimes and just brainwash their people with propaganda then force them to live in squalor while they fund a war that they have never won even once.

For once the Unicorn has given me an outlook in UC that I can agree on so I hope it can actually put this whole conflict to rest in a satisfying manner. Hopefully they can also make Banagher more likable for once.

Rent-A-Char basically said it when he had Banagher captive – he’s going to lose what little personality he had and become a “vessel” for the collective wishes of humanity via the Unicorn. While fighting Rent-A-Char who is/considers himself a vessel for the real thing.

As much as the Universal Century is filled with tales of atrocities on both sides, only one has what you could say was concern for its people at its core, and that’s the Federation. But it’s a laborious and lengthy process to achieve lasting reform in such a large entity (think back to Daguza’s speech in ep 3, or for a real like equivalent look at the turgid mess that is be the UK’s public services at the hands of the ConDem coalition government – no I’m not bitter at all); fighting for independence, freedom, propserity, is merely looking for the easiest way out and not caring about the lives that need rebuilding after the conflict is over.

This has been a pretty large beam tomahawk equipped elephant in the room for Unicorn, as it is infamously penned by an author who has previous for ignoring, or worse, glorifying war crimes committed in the name of GLORIOUS NIPPON. Ep 4 was the low point for this sentiment – “malfunctioning psycommu” my arse. With this is mind, I actually cheered out loud when Mitas (sp?) told Rent-boy where to shove his Not-Char loving cock. bonus points for Conroy too, for acting p. chill throughout the tensions but forseeing the need to kick Neo Zeon arseholes and preparing accordingly. This late into the story, it’s about time everybody picked a side and stuck to their beliefs, even if it is to protect the current so future generations have something to work with. Note the use of the word protect, *not* maintain.

Speaking of maintaining, why oh why does Daisuke Namikawa maintain his affinity with Gundam productions? I think he’s now at 4 in 5 (not counting Gunpla Builders) for annoying characters that piss off the viewers; maybe he’s a closet masochist or something. If AGE had a fanbase to speak of, it’d be a strikeout.

Overall I’m glad the OVAs were extended. This episode was necessary to set everything straight heading into the final conflicts. It did feel rather like it was squeezed into the running (with almost the entire episode taking place on the Nahel Argama), but now there are no ambiguities left in terms of character motivation. Even loli-Queen has made her mind up, and she rather neatly spun Rent-A-Char’s own words against him. Not that he’d care now he knows where to go, but like Micott said all of Mineva’s efforts so far seem to have worsened the situation. Hopefully this decision will prove to be correct. Well we know it will, but hopefully she will drag Banana along with her.

Also, dat. soundtrack. It’s the best I’ve heard in Gundam, even better than Kenji Kawai’s work for 00. Long may it continue.

Thanks. I tried my best. I’m not sure what you said is true. The Earth Federation certainly doesn’t care as much for the Spacenoids. Also, I don’t think Mineva or the Earth Federation has come up with a solution of their own to end the conflict. Full Frontal’s plan might not be popular with the pacifists but it’s the first one that was put on the table.

Hmm… It’s quite impossible decide who’s right or wrong, that debate is the crux of my post which I hope you’ve read. Frankly, Full Frontal’s the only one who has offered a solution. Mineva or even Otto has failed to come up with one of their own, aside from the cliched “We are going to believe in the future generation”. How’s that supposed to help, if I may ask? :x

It was the first plan put forward, but it’s pragmatic at best, static at worst, and self-serving regardless Those criticisms Mineva leveled at it were justified – the roles of power will swap and the endless waltz (geddit? I’m so clever) of war, “peace” and “revolution” will continue. Is that any better than, say, Riddhe’s fatalist take on the conflict? Just because it is the first plan anybody has come up with doesn’t mean it is the right choice to proceed, or even a good choice at all. Generic and cliched as it is, waiting for the future generations in the hope that they can magick up a solution is preferable to merely turning the tables. It also fits in with one of the main themes of Unicorn, the beast of possibility, Axis Shock, etc. We’ve also seen that FF doesn’t care about the majority of his fellow spacenoids when Banagher was taken to Palau, so while his new economic zone will grant freedom to the colonies the people in them will see no benefit unless they were in the elite anyway.

You’ve got me with the Feds though; it’s more an annoyance in the glorification of Zeon in fan circles and side materials. It would be truer to say that both sides give an infinitesimal amount of fucks about the general populace, but I get really pissed off when Feds are portrayed as monsters while Zeeks crimes are taken to be necessary in the fight for whatever it is their current leader is telling them. Again, may I point you in the direction of Episode 4 …

Now, I’ll be pretty depressed too if the love of my life dumped me for some other guy. Not to mention Riddhe was left for death after the Banshee crushed his Delta Plus. He has every right to be pissed if you ask me.

And once again, the Universal Century shines through and shows that good plot and character development can be just as compelling and interesting to watch as mobile suit battles (much like 0080 and 08th MS Team did). It’s difficult to really decide just who to root for at times because each side will come up with pretty compelling/sympathetic characters and/or reasons to support them (and its own share of people to dislike as well). It goes to show that, despite how different many groups in humanity can be, there are more things that make them the same than they would ever want to admit and that, while extremely difficult beyond imagining, humanity CAN come to at least understand eachother. Just that so many have different reasoning to hold onto the negativity; simple (brainwashed) hatred, stuck in the past, ego, and so on.

Not meaning to sound like an AU series hater/UC fanboy, but for at least half of the AU series (Wing, SEED, SEED Destiny, later 00, and the last 1/3 of AGE), I just didn’t get that feeling of good character/plot development whatnot, and felt a majority of the focus was on flashy (unbalanced) mobile suit battles, “pretty” characters, and in the cases of SEED/SEED Destiny and 1/3 of AGE, nonsensical (hypocritical) pacifist speeches DURING COMBAT.

As always, I also do like how there’s usually an obvious ode to past mobile suits as well in the newer ones. Besides the Unicorn (Nu Gundam, sort of), Sinanju (Sazabi), Kshatriya (Quin Mantha), Delta Plus (completed Hyaku Shiki), ReZel (Methuss/Zeta Plus/Re-GZ), we got the Rozen Zulu which operates similar to the Hamma Hamma from ZZ (primarily its INCOM arms and shield with mega particle cannons), which is pretty surprising considering the Hamma Hamma was a one-shot mobile suit that only did somewhat okay in ZZ (taking off the Zeta Gundam’s head before Judau gets the ZZ for the first time and royally owns it).

Even a more unique one like the Shamblo Mobile Armor felt like it had bits of the Grabro Mobile Armor from Mobile Suit Gundam, the Psyco Gundam Mark II (with its Reflector Bits), and the Jamru Fin from ZZ.

Man, I would upvote this comment more than once if I could. I was so tempted to list down the great mecha that was featured in the show, but that would result in a text body that is even denser and we all know nobody reads those XD
I agree with most of what you said, but I feel like you ought to cut the newer series some slack. They targeting a different and younger audience, and most of them have very good stories and writing as well. Gundam 00 and After War X are two of my favorites.

Yeah, I personally enjoyed G Gundam (yes, I said I enjoyed it, lol), Gundam X, Turn A Gundam (still the most powerful “Gundam” of all), about half of 00, and Flit and most of Asemu’s Arcs in AGE out of the AU series’. I only wish Gundam X wasn’t cut short to its 39 episode run.

Only UC-era bits I felt were lower on the scale was the first, more pointless, half of ZZ (as I’m sure most fans do, lol) and F91. While F91 wasn’t “bad”, I just feel that it would’ve been much better if it had come out as the 50 episode series it was originally meant to be rather than all squashed into the OVA movie it came out as, thus making quite a bit of it feeling rushed, leaving out a bunch of explanations and such. At the very least, like 0080, 08th MS Team, and Unicorn, it should’ve come out as a shorter OVA series ranging six to twelve episodes.

Gundam ZZ is my personal favorite and I’m probably one of the few who actually finds Judau likable lol
Agree, F91 would have worked so much better as a full-length series or even that of an OVA series like Stardust Memory.

1.) He was already forced to be a bit more grown-up in the beginning considering he and Leina had no parents and living in the slums of “Shangri-La”, so he’s having to raise and care for her as the “parent”, working to raise money, wanting what’s best for her (raising money to send her to a good school), and so on.

2.) Like Kamille, he was already somewhat experienced with Mobile Suits (as in hands-on experience) by his using Junior Mobile Suits in his junkyard job on a daily basis. Amuro had to read a manual and Kamille relied on data he stole from his father’s computer when piloting at first.

3.) His emo period was very short. Otherwise, despite the life he and Leina had to live up to that point, he was quite positive, upbeat, and actually reacts to a lot of things people do to him (like when Wong tried to punch him like he did with Kamille in Zeta, Judau was like, “Screw that!”, dodged and punched him back instead, lol). For kids his age, you’d think that living the way they were would turn them into total juvenile delinquents. Sure Judau and co. tried to steal the Zeta Gundam early on, but it wasn’t out of any malicious intent. Judau just had the idea that he’d be able to sell it to make enough money to send Leina to a good school.

4.) He was a ladies’ man, lol. Seriously, how many other main male Gundam pilots had as many girls actually liking them like Judau? Roux, Elle, Pie, Pie Two, even Haman! Yeah, Uso had the Shrike Team and such in Victory, but I always had more of a feeling of maternal love than actual love there.

Another thing I enjoy about Unicorn is them showing some of the smaller things that we really didn’t see “work” when used before.

Like the anti-beam particles that are meant to be shot out with missiles in front of ships to defend against incoming enemy beam weapon fire (MS or ships). This time, we actually got a close-up look at it working by it blocking and deflecting Frontal’s long range beam rifle shots and even messing with the beam sabers used within the area by making them look like they’re about to fizzle out at any moment due to the dispersion of the beam energy.

I wasn’t crying (I’m dead inside) but man, they nearly got me when Marida mumbled “Otou san”.
Agree, as much as Gundam is about the great mecha, it’s also about the politics and the people. There’s never a clear black and white scenario and I love the series for that.

I watched this episode… 4 whole times so far, and 15+ times on fighting scenes. I got to say that the dialogue and the physics of Gundam Unicorn is what sets it above the rest. As a physics major, I feel the movements of the mobile suits are very believable compared to any other mecha shows.

I also really like how char is such a great pilot :D

The opening fighting scene just shows him shutting down the general revil and all it’s mobile suits with such fluidity while not killing a single person (assuming the explosions on general revil’s hull are exterior damage only)

Also, no mention of the dummy balloons? That was oldschool and how they fought was an excellent display of teamwork, experience and tactics – something that is sorely underrepresented in combat engagements. It’s just a shame they had to come up against an overwhelmingly powerful beast like the Banshee in grunt suits, similar to the Stark Jegan vs Kshatriya fight from the first episode (albeit that matchup was a lot more even).

It’s actually not THAT old school. Remember, in Char’s Counterattack, you had the Londo Bell fleet using dummy balloons of their ships to throw off returning fire from Neo Zeon forces.

With Minovsky Particles always screwing with various radar and sensor systems, people are forced to rely a lot more on actual sight, using things that mess with that sight, as simple as it may be, is pretty effective.

Dramatic entrance of Unicorn, dramatic song track plays, dramatic credits…(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ You know a series is awesome when you don’t even realise time is up for the movie…At least the evangelion movie ease the painful wait.

Well said, yusuke. I have mixed feelings as the show hits the ending credits. On one hand, the collide of Unicorn and Banshee was EPIC to say the least, on the other, I kinda wished it goes on for another hour :x

Riddhe seems like a very jealous man to me.
But it would be incredible if he can master Banshee in such short time.
How will Banshee go NT-D in ep7?
By Riddhe’s rage?
Forcefully via remote means?
Then Banagher will talk(or yell) sense to Riddhe, bring about an understanding and make Banshee green?

Wonder how much has the OVA deviated from the original novel, besides the new mecha designs for Bandai to spam kits/reuse molds?

That new MA/MS partially completed is something new it seems.
(Maybe Bandai is planning the kit of it now or have already finished?)
Full Frontal wants a Zeong too? :P
Will Unicorn and Banshee team up against this MA/MS (2 green psychoframe Unicorns resonating)?

Full Frontal did escape into Rozen Zulu’s cockpit, right?
During the escape from Nahel Argama.

Theres surely going to be a lot of shouting of each others’ ideals at each other as the pilots clash in ep7 :P

Pretty excited about this as speculations start pouring out of my head.
Perhaps the wait till ep7 will calm it down :P
(Or I’ll slowly forget about ep7 :P Actually I forgot about ep6′s release :P)